Such a simple question.  But, for someone like me about to serve the needs of a different buyer than I’m used to, a daunting question to answer.  Call it my “consciously incompetent” phase.

Why so daunting?  If you’ve been dabbling in behavioral economics as I have, you quickly learn that what people say they want to buy, and why they *really* buy, are two very different things.  Consumer goods companies are leading the charge here, and they are quickly abandoning methods like focus groups to peer into the minds of their customers.  Rather, odd-sounding tools like Functional MRI are the new means to correlate what the subconscious is thinking and the product qualities that matter to it.  And it’s the subconscious that is proving to be our real decision maker as buyers.

Now consider my challenge of building security products for consumers and small businesses.  What’s in their minds that cause them to want my product?  Sure, they don’t want any viruses to infect their computer.  Is that the end of it?  I doubt it.  I bet that the winning vendor will understand the rest of the buyers’ mindset and offer a superior experience.  Such is the journey ahead…